Join hosts Ivan Foley and Guy Speckman as they speak with former NBA Player Scott Wedman including stories about what it was like winning championships alongside Larry Bird, as well as a host of other topics. It’ll be a fun one.
hey everybody Welcome in it’s another episode of landmark live it’s a production of your Platte County Landmark newspaper I’m Ivan Foley my co-host over there on the far side that’s guy Speckman and our special guest tonight it’s a first time we’ve got a lot of first tonight we have our first NBA champion on the show tonight this is Scott wedman Scott played for the Kansas City Kings and briefly with Cleveland finished up with the Celtics right that’s right okay I won a couple championships with the Celtics we’re going to talk about all of that but you know what Scott wedman is also at Platte County resident and I did not know this until recently when I was enjoying a free lunch at the Running Horse Ranch and Home Hardware store so was I I was standing there next to this tall fella and uh Rick Clark who owns a running horse came over and said hey you wanted me to introduce you to the guys and then he introduced me to some guy I think it was a relative of bricks then he said when there’s Scott wedman and I shook Scott’s hand and I’m like you mean the Scott Woodman that’s an NBA was an NBA player I didn’t know it was you I should have well six foot seven I probably should have figured it out but uh lo and behold and and you’re a frequent visitor of running horse ranches yeah I’m making up there once or twice a month yeah I really like this place yeah yeah do you like Rick though Rick and Blake yeah they’re uh they they’re always there and so uh I like to give them a hard time when they come in I think Blake and vice versa yes yeah I think Blake does all the work up there don’t you you know I’m not sure they’re always you can always find them and they’re they’re moving around I don’t know what they’re doing but they seem to stay busy yeah it’s like what you said if you want to find something uh you gotta ask Blake and if you want to if you want to find Blake you gotta ask Rick because I want to get back to so do you get like free lunch there is that is this I don’t think that’s an everyday thing I think something special like Rick’s birthday maybe it was Rick’s birthday that day so yeah next time I’ll drag you along to the free lunch but that was really good by the way so we’re going to talk about basketball a lot we’re going to talk about uh Scott wedman’s life at Weatherby Lake and uh all kinds of things and guy specman you’ve got some questions I’m sure to fire us off here don’t you you know the one thing that I’ve been thinking about I’m just I’m thrilled to be here with with Scott and it’s it’s what about me you’re thrilled to be here with me well I’m kind of used to you so it’s kind of a door Edge type thing but um you know the one thing I keep thinking about what was it were you here for the Omaha Kings for the Kansas City Omaha I was a couple years that was a Kansas City Omaha King when I first came here I always wondered what when you think back about it you went from Kansas City where they were sharing their team with Omaha and you ended up in Boston I mean can’t see where they were struggling to to Really grab their fan base and you ended up in Boston what was it I mean the mecca of of basketball how did you think back on that when you think about the two different experiences well I think uh Kansas City really prepared me uh for Boston I was I was here in Kansas City for seven years including a year and a half and been to the playoffs four times Advanced and uh to the Western Conference Finals in 81 and so when I got traded to Boston in 83 I was um kind of knew what it was all about and knew that winning the championship was the ultimate goal and that’s you had to basically uh um sacrifice for the team and I was really willing and able to do it and I developed pretty good skills uh I’ve been a starter most of my career played a couple All-Star games so it was just a a great timing thing for me and it worked out great yeah the uh speaking of the Western Conference finals and that was an exciting time for Kansas City as the that team was really coming together and in the season you were near 500 or something for the season and really came together in the playoffs as as I’ve read and recall that’s correct we had we had a great coach cotton Fitzsimmons and he was a real players coach he was from Bowling Green Missouri that’s right that’s right I think coach that uh we’ll see was it from Hannibal and he coached and he coached at Junior College the junior college he coached for I don’t uh but he was yeah that’s right Moberly coast of K-State and he was just a a great coach and we had somewhat of a veteran team at that point and we did we Rose to the occasion in the playoffs and it was quite a thrill to get to the finals you played more minutes uh the only one person played more minutes in that series than you did and his name was Moses Malone oh in the last series yeah in the Houston series oh that might I didn’t know that you’ve been doing your research I did not know that but if I did play a lot yeah yeah you played a lot you played a lot of minutes if not for Moses Malone you guys would have won that series I’m quite sure right he was a very dominant player back in those days you know he was and also they had a guy on there I thought was a great little player was Calvin Murphy Gardens that could really play a really good offensive player uh they had a good team and uh we had we were a little bit hampered uh Phil Ford and Otis bird song both had injuries during the playoffs that year and they were they were on their way back but I don’t think they were quite 100 especially Phil in that final uh that final playoff series yeah and who was uh there was a guy was grunfeld on that team he was right yeah he had a pretty good playoffs yeah great he had a great series he uh well great playoffs he played he ended up um when Phil Ford went out he basically started playing point guard at six five and then uh when Otis got hurt uh during the Phoenix series I played the two guard for most of that Series so we we had two pretty big guards uh in the backcourt okay so now it was 1974 when you came out of college right yes okay went to Colorado you were Colorado Buffalo played in the big eight conference right and uh tell us a little bit about your big eight days so that would have been who was your college coach a guy by the name of uh Sox wall set okay and that’s when Ted Owens would have been at Kansas Ted Owens was Norm Stewart was at Missouri uh Joe Cipriano was at Nebraska oh of course Jack Hartman right stocks is a great name Bob I mean I assume that his mother didn’t give him yeah it was Russell that was his nickname he played at Colorado he’s a guard but I think that he got his nickname in college but his name was Russell but they called him socks and he he was a great coach yeah so who were some of the other big eight stars that you played against in that well so at mu uh John Brown was a year older than me Al Eberhard was my same year uh at KU but Stallworth was a year older than me uh I think um see this is Tom cavisto was at KU at that time K State of course had all the little point guard Lonnie Krueger yeah Lonnie was quite a player Alvin Adams was in Oklahoma he was a year two younger than us like he was a sophomore in my senior year really good player um it was it was a very competitive uh conference and a thing that really helped us at Colorado our coach he I think I don’t know if he they just he wasn’t worried about losing his job we would play some of the best teams in the country in preseason we would play Long Beach State we played New Mexico New Mexico State Arizona it wasn’t like we were going to playing in a D2 school or we he thought that the better competition we had in preseason would make us better during the conference which I think it did yeah yeah so and then let’s back up a little bit too I’m kind of going in reverse order here but you uh you grew up in Harper Kansas you told me right well I was born there and lived there all the first four or five years of my life and then we my dad was transferred uh or hired by Martin Marietta we moved to Denver and kind of grew up in the Littleton area okay and we were back and forth a couple years in there but for the most part grew up in Denver Littleton area and that’s how you ended up going to high school in Denver right that’s that’s correct yeah I read somewhere that you didn’t start in high school until you were a senior in high school that’s right yeah yeah that’s impressive yep I was yeah in fact the Sox wall set he had a um we didn’t have Au programs like they do now and so in the summertime uh you really played whichever uh sport was in season played football in the fall basketball and then baseball and after my junior year I knew I I wanted to focus on basketball I started doing some research and I found out Colorado had a basketball camp so I that’s my dad you know if I could go and I had a job so I made enough money to just to pay for that and I went and that so that was the only Camp I ever went to and it was an overnight camp it was the only Camp you ever went to only one and the last day of the camp um coach wall Seth was teaching what they call the jump stop now he called it the Hop and I went I uh parents were coming up to pick us up and I oh yeah I went up to socks and I said ask him if he could help me with my shot and it was like the light bulb went on he I couldn’t miss I kind of got everything the mechanics everything just fell together my dad my Uncle Pete picked me up and we went back and going back to Denver and I asked my dad if we could go by the high school and go shoot around a little bit and um went in and started shooting and my dad was amazing he was like what happened to you it was that it was that quick it was that it was uh yeah it was that kind of that precise moment in the next year I started made Allstate and um apparently I heard socks had heard that Wyoming had offered me a scholarship and they go who’s Scott wedman and the assistant coach says well here’s our camp and he I didn’t make a big impact because as I said the last day of the camp was one of sort of all the light bulb came on and started figuring out how to do some things offensively and so anyway he wasn’t able to give me a full scholarship but he offered me a parcel and um and that’s where I wanted to go my brother was there two years older on the track team so I got to go to Colorado and it worked out that’s a great story yeah your brother was pole vaulting there that’s right he was pole vault in and decathlete yeah my uh my dad always liked to introduce uh us after I retired I guess it was we’d have my dad have some friends over and new friends in his company and he’d say yeah this is uh my son Scott he played 13 years in the NBA and this is my son Mike he’s the athlete in the family and so my dad got a little mileage that’s good so then you come out and the Kansas City Kings draft you in the first round right and you were the number six overall pick right that’s pretty impressive in itself and then and they didn’t look that up who went before you though I mean who who made the mistake well no no I think Bill Walton went number one that year yeah yeah um Jamal Wilkes Keith Wilkes was ahead of me I think he was the fifth pick and uh yeah I was thrilled I had um I’d actually sprained my ankle and actually tore some ligaments when I was at Columbia with about in Missouri with about five or six games to go in the season and so I had had that surgery and I didn’t quite know if I was going to be okay but Kansas City based on I guess you know seeing me playing the big eight tournament and in the conference they were very interested so they flew me in and had their doctor examine my ankle to see if I was going to be okay and uh Howard elfeld was a doctor and he said he’s going to be fine and so they they drafted me yeah that’s pretty impressive so uh you went from a guy who didn’t have all that much confidence as a senior in high school to a guy who’s the sixth overall pick in the NBA draft that’s that’s quite impressive did you spend your childhood like shooting around in the driveway a lot of the Woodman boys I mean it was kind of the same thing it was probably basketball more so than anything because you could you could do that on your own uh if you’re football or baseball you know you had to have a team kind of to play on but basketball just didn’t seemed to be something that gravitated towards and just really enjoyed it and I always try to keep getting better even when I was in the NBA I always felt like you know I made the All-Star team and I I kind of felt like it was a work in progress until I retired I was always trying to improve and even when I went to boss and I didn’t make the All-Star team of course I was playing behind bird and Mikhail and those guys but I uh I always enjoyed challenging myself to get better and um I just I didn’t really enjoyed my career I had no regrets I would have liked to play longer but I had a little Achilles tendon uh injury that it kind of prevented me from being 100 percent do some of your Boston teams have reunion type things every now and then we had we did early right after retired radar back was still alive and he was he was sort of the lifeblood of the team he uh we had two or three events when he passed away things seemed to kind of change different regimes came in and a lot of the guys are in uh different you know there’s a everybody’s kind of gone different directions we stay in touch a little bit here and there but uh we have any reunions of late yes hey stick with us folks because soon we’ve got a highlight reel it’s a it’s a YouTube video that you may have seen I’ve watched it several times just kind of prepping for the show I think it was 1985 Scott wedman uh comes off the bench in a playoff game for the Celtics and I believe he hits 11 out of 11 shots if I remember right so we’re gonna we’re gonna play that clip in a little bit you wanna you wanna stick around for that to watch that uh I’m sure you remember that day Scott right I do is also it’s now known as the Memorial Day Massacre right because the game was on Memorial Day yep that’s right it was uh it was a memorable day for the team and you know it was against the Lakers which is our Nemesis in the playoffs it was the team we were always trying to beat and so that was the first game of the series and not only myself a lot of other players had good games and the next game we’ve we fell flat but uh and we ended up losing the series but it was that was a we thought we got off to a great start we just weren’t able to sustain it it’s pretty cool yeah when’s the last time you had 11 of 11. let me I want to brag on myself because I was going to bring this up some more I gotta I got a story for you one time in the mid 90s early to mid 90s my daughter was prepping for a free throw shooting contest and I said hey let’s go to the high school gym so we went down the high school gym and I was I could shoot I couldn’t do anything else I couldn’t handle where the where the darn I couldn’t handle the ball but I was a pretty good shooter I stepped up the free throw line I had 23 out of 25 free throws I’m not even going my wife can my wife and my daughter witnessed it now I wish they would you know swear to it or so but but is that pretty good well it depends on was it underhand or over I didn’t shoot Rick Barry style man that’s pretty good but I was like I want to be Scott wedman so yeah 23 out of 25 I was pretty impressed with myself that’s pretty good now a guy give us your best basketball no goodbye pinpoints I think in Dekalb on the JV game so I’m you know they probably double fingers man around there about that yeah so I was kind of different when I like a lot of guys will try to do that same way that you’re making a row yeah and when I was whenever I would shoot around I never let like really kept statistics I would just go shoot and just feel the shots make it feel good if it felt good and it went in I knew that’s that was a good Rhythm so I go and I go somewhere over the ball came out I’d go shoot from there and I had I had just a different way of practicing like that and I recall one time I was in the garden everybody left or most most players have got us after practice and we didn’t always practice at the Garden a lot of times at a small college but anyway I started shooting and I realized after about 20 minutes I hadn’t missed and so and I think that would that was what I enjoyed doing more than like seeing how many I could make in a row right you don’t get you don’t get a chat with a bunch of guys that say you know I was shooting some ball at the Garden yeah did you have a favorite spot on the floor because I I would always find a favorite spot and then when you’re playing a pickup game you’re just line up in that spot away boom well when my first year in Kansas City um the year before tiny Archibald I’m sure you’ve heard of it sure he led the league in scoring an assist at 6-1 and he was a great passer a great offensive player but I learned earlier in my career with the Kings I always wanted to be in Tiny’s Vision if he got in trouble I wanted him to be able to find me right and so and if he threw me the ball I was going to shoot it yeah because I it meant I was open right so I wasn’t gonna then try to put the ball on the floor and score I’d shoot and if I made two or three in a row he would look for me I mean the rest of the game if I missed two or three no I wouldn’t shoot so I got who you were I got to feed the hot hands right but anyway a lot of those shots were from the Baseline so the Baseline was sort of my go-to spot I think and I’m gonna Tech man united or whenever you have that video ready we’ll uh just shoot me a signal and we’ll we’ll watch that because I want to talk about that you ready to roll with that okay Tech man tells us he’s got the uh Memorial Day Massacre video ready to roll so let’s let’s check this out thank you Scott wedman has come in the first man off the bench for the Celtics and Whitman the birds back up and a good long and medium range shooter Byrd remains in the game that’s a significant substitution [Applause] Celtics can’t miss and the Lakers Camp Iowa Buffalo Dennis Johnson three wedman goes for three does it again two for Scott Whitman three-point bombs this would happen women again for three and of course Batman right there 225 to go leading 102-73 Scott Whitman five for five today I want to see what the Celtics do with Maxwell here because he could be a key figure later down the road here’s a guy who hasn’t missed today I don’t think so much I know what to think about Wegman oh yeah Scott Wegman remember game six when the Celtics eliminated the best Pistons hit his first seven shots right [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] oh yeah that last one you’re just like hell I’m going to shoot from anywhere I think after that timing party hits horse came that day I think after that Casey Jones called the timeout and we went over to the bench and ML car says Casey Jones he’s got the NBA record get him out of the game don’t mess it up don’t mess up yeah I don’t know I might win 13 for 13. I don’t know but I think I came out of the game after that was awesome but you talk about dribbling too and you know when you’re on a roll you probably don’t want to put the ball on the floor do you if you’re open anyway because I mean to me I’m not I’m not an NBA player but to me it was all muscle memory so once I got like when I’m shooting 25 straight free throws it’s like I could get the muscle memory I’m like yeah I’m on a roll here so I don’t want to dribble or anything I you know some the shooter a lot of times you like one dribble it kind of gets you it kind of gets your rhythm going a little bit especially if it’s a hard dribble and you’re bringing the ball up quick makes it feel pretty good and I also a lot of times as a shooter you like somebody running at you because you know that if you don’t get it off quick you’re gonna get a block so those two things sort of speed up your Rhythm and as shooter the quicker your Rhythm it just seems like everything flows better yeah if you’ve got a whole bunch of time or whatever you have to think about it yeah it just seems like it works better the other way that’s that’s good stuff I think that’s my that’s my favorite NBA clip to watch so you still watch a lot of NBA these days you know I really uh I watched quite a bit of the playoffs and my favorite team you know no no don’t mean nothing to the Celtics or anything I mean no bad blood or anything but I just I really enjoy watching Golden State and Steph Curry yeah I think he’s revolutionized shooting at me change the game I mean in a lot of ways he reminds me of Patrick Holmes the way he sort of changed the game in football and they both seem to have a similar demeanor uh real relaxing and core teammates really good team players at the same time they they are really talented and I think they both it really just changed the game changed their sport I read uh I read somewhere that you uh you were you lifted a lot you were you were lifting weights a lot compared to the other guy he said what uh yeah I did your Wiki I didn’t read your wiki page Ivan but but Scott does have his own one would you make me a winky face but uh yeah it said you lived a lot and that uh and that you had a healthy lifestyle growing up that yeah a healthy eating type lifestyle kind of before it’s time a little bit yeah I knew enough about nutrition and exercise uh I kind of learned as I as as I was going along but I just felt like it would make me uh maybe prolong my career I did I worked a lot of flexibility I did yoga to some degree to stretch and so uh I was always just trying to maximize my potential the 82 to 100 games a year you can’t really during the season you couldn’t do a lot of improving your conditioning so that was just to maintain so in the summertime is when you could work on getting stronger or faster or quicker so I do a lot of my I’d usually take it the most a week off and my wife was like hey let’s go travel somewhere and we usually didn’t and I just really wanted to focus on you know getting better what was the travel like then I mean what was it I mean did you have private planes no no we didn’t you wrote the commercial sure yeah I mean we didn’t know anything any better it was better than taking a train or a bus yeah hey and when you were when you were the Kansas City Omaha Kings how was the traveling we did bus up there you’d bust you took the bus I wondered yeah we ended up you know you mentioned that earlier so Omaha we maybe played six to eight games a year okay and so when I this is kind of unusual you may not know this so when I got to Boston they played three or four games um where the heck did we play those I can’t remember now it was all Hartford heartbreaking we played three or four years probably wasn’t called the Boston Hartford Celtics they did that and I they did that for the the whole time I was there I don’t know I don’t think they still do it but uh there weren’t a lot of other teams that did that yeah that I know of did you guys draw a crowd in Omaha when you played up there did anybody show up yeah I mean it wasn’t great we had um so a lot of people think well Kansas City was not quite an NBA town but I think it was in 79 right before the Kemper Arena fell in you know the roof fell in oh yeah the kings were in the top third of attendance in the NBA we averaged 10 000 a game which put us in the one in the top third attendance in the NBA and it seemed like when we moved to Municipal for that year while they rebuilt camper we lost a little momentum um and I think it was 79 this is when we went back and after your series after that Series where you made the Conference Finals that was the end of that team right that team broke they didn’t break up after that year Well a year no it’s in Kent you mean the same Kansas City yeah after uh that was 81 and now the team stayed here to about 85. I love I mean as far as the players oh yeah the players Otis bird’s eye and myself signed a free agency contracts and that’s when we left we were hoping both of us were hoping to stay in Kansas City because Kansas City had the right of first refusal and um they didn’t they didn’t match so we we yeah I was in Cleveland and I just went to New Jersey yeah yeah everybody you’re watching Landmark live and we are visiting with Scott wedman former NBA player who won a couple World Championships while he was with the Boston Celtics he also played for the Kansas City Kings and that’s kind of where we’re focusing the conversation right now Scott by the way lives in Platte County and we will get more into that in a minute but uh going back to the year that uh you you left for Cleveland and where did Birdsong go remember well he signed with Cleveland but Cleveland traded him the uh the New Jersey Net so he went to New Jersey okay so you got a pretty pretty sweet contract out of Cleveland right yeah sure did and you were there one year year and a half year and a half yeah and then you go to Boston and then I’ve heard this story I wanted to we’re going to verify it now your first year in Cleveland you were making more money than Larry Bird is that true well my first year in Boston I mean in the first year in Boston uh yeah that’s true yes yes even though Larry would never say anything about it and I don’t know I mean I’m sure he knew that but uh when I got to Boston uh I was playing the same I was thrilled to get traded there right just because of the history but it’s you know all of a sudden I real soon I realized oh I’m I’m playing alongside Larry Bird right and uh he was four years younger than me and uh I’d seen him come in the league and he had done he’d done well um and he just kept improving and improving so I knew I was gonna have my hands full and I did in practice for that first I got traded in January right on the trading deadline in 83 and from there the the end of that that season it was a okay I think it was almost like a hazing period you put me through you’re probably matched up with with him a lot oh all the time okay all the time and uh I learned a lot I learned a lot more about the mental side of the game I think I became more of a uh um accomplished player handled pressure better I watched him perform in games it was unbelievable uh so three three of the four and a half years I was there he was MVP of the league and uh rightfully so he deserved he was unbelievable I think in that time frame he was probably I mean he was the best clutch player I’ve ever seen he was just phenomenal and so I really enjoyed the time there it was a challenge every day going to practice against him or you know he’d come out of the game and go in and take his place you know you and the Boston fans were tremendous they uh I felt like they were the most knowledgeable fans in the in the country and they they they they appreciated when you played well and um they they knew when you weren’t and it was it was it was a it was kind of like playing under a microscope uh but I felt like I was up to the task and I really enjoyed it yeah now tell us the story I heard a story where you guys were playing in Washington against the uh would have been the bullets right yes okay you were playing in Washington I don’t know if bird didn’t play that game or maybe yeah I think he played as well no but we’re gonna hear it did Rick tell you no yeah I can’t reveal my source on it okay but I’ve heard that uh you had a great game against the bullets and and bird didn’t didn’t like uh what what all was written in the paper today well what happened bird was playing it was actually in 85 and I remember that it was in the winter and Kevin McHale had an injury and he was out for about 18 games and so I got to start alongside bird which was great because Birdman you know he would um a lot of the attention would be on him and so a lot of times would be open and I averaged quite a few points 18 28 game uh we won 16 out of 17 games this one particular game you’re referring to we beat the bullets and I was the leading scorer on the team I had 24 points and after the well that didn’t say anything after the game next morning we’re waiting for the team bus and Larry comes in and throws the newspaper down on the coffee table in front of him he says do you see this BS and uh I hadn’t I picked up the paper and had a picture of myself and said wedman leads Celtics past bullets and uh Larry said this will never happen again this is my team yeah oh yeah and uh people they asked me I said well are you serious or was he just kidding and I said yeah all right clears it out and Larry had a great sense of humor at the same time he he would get his point across yeah and uh I really enjoyed playing with him he was he was a troop champion and uh he demanded everybody around him kind of right he pushed everybody because he knew what it took it’s not easy to win a championship it just isn’t no no matter how tall you are you have a lot have to have a lot of things to go your way and you get everybody on the same page you have a lot better chance yeah now Bill Walton played on the those Celtics teams too at some point right just my last year last year there yeah well Robert Harris was he he was a starting center okay and and did he ever he seemed like he was a very quiet guy Robert was a great teammate he uh he was quiet on the court but in the locker room he had this big laugh kind of reminds you of Bill Russell’s laugh a little bit and uh he was a great teammate he Larry would get a lot of attention or Kevin McHale or Danny Ainge and Robert didn’t carry come out every night and play hard and he if you watch some of the old tapes to watch Robert run to court was amazing he we did a rebound he might outlet and he would just take off and like he beat guys like Kareem down before he get a lot of dunks at the end of The Fast Break uh he was tremendous player yeah now was Walton uh kind of crazy back in those days how was he as a team oh bill was great yeah he uh when he when he came to Boston in 86 we’d lost an 85 to the Lakers and um you know Bill had been troubled by injuries almost his entire career uh he’d won the championship and I think it was in 77 with Portland but you know he’s a great player I knew the game really well and he when he arrived he was like a kid in a candy store he was playing with Larry Bird against parish and Mikhail and everybody we had a we had a really fun team everybody especially the starters they were always kidding with each other and they would you know making jokes about each other and Bill what became the butt of all their jokes and he Bill loved it he embraced it yeah that was great and he came off the bench that year and him and I and Jerry seasting we were kind of the three main guys coming off the bench and uh we we had great practices a lot of times we were called The Green Team the second team and we would beat them in scrimmages and we were such a veteran team our practice consisted of there was we were in scrimmage is a big decision whether we’re going to play half court or full court that was about it we didn’t do drills that much or anything yeah right and so uh it was a great year it was a great year was that do you like to watch Walton now when he announces college basketball games I’ve grown to appreciate him I I enjoy I think he’s improved a lot you know he’s kind of got his own stick a little bit Yeah and uh he’s very colorful and he’ll bring he’ll bring things to your attention you didn’t even know about yes you know and he’ll kind of go off in the tangent but he knows the game and he I think to him it’s uh it is a game yeah he uh he really appreciates competition though and he’s he really understands what it takes to win I I that was so apparent playing with him he just he had a focus that you you you didn’t see very often yeah yeah he was great but yeah he just I think he does fine I like his shtick on those lands yeah it’s usually a late night West Coast game and it’s just like it’s everybody’s relaxed and he’s he has fun with it yeah yeah yeah yeah so and Guy touched on this earlier the travel I mean you hear all kinds of stories about the NBA players of today getting Wild on the road and stuff was there much a wild behavior on the road in the NBA back in your time oh I don’t know about that we the guy’s going to the strip club and making it rain oh I don’t know so we you know I know how guys do that we’re playing four games a week and you’re traveling a couple days a week and if you want to be if you really want to be ready for a game which that was my main thing you do everything you get your sleep you eat right and you you know there obviously could be distractions but uh I don’t think you last very long if you do that yeah yeah now uh we uh we did a little research Guy brought this to my attention you told a story one time of running a a marathon in Boston with bird can you tell us that story well we rather we gotta back off on that a little bit it was a 10K uh yeah and so I had this uh I had this ritual if I if uh bird was going I think he’d play much the next day at practice I’d get to practice early especially if we were at home and I would run for about a half hour run out around the court for about 15 minutes run away 15 minutes the other way just you know to get a workout because if you if you’re sitting on a bench for 40 minutes of a 48 minute game you don’t get much of a workout so I was wanting to stay in shape be ready to go if I was going to be called on the play a lot so I used to do that and Larry’s always going what are you doing I mean I tell him I said I’m just trying to stay in shape in case you get hurt I’m gonna be ready to go and so one day I come into practice it was in the spring and Larry’s running around the corner and he played 40 minutes the night before and I said what are you doing and he’s like oh I just need to get in better shape and so this goes on for about two weeks and then he comes up to him he goes friend of mine’s having a fundraiser in a couple weeks it’s a 10K I like to run it you want to run with me and I said yeah I guess we could let’s talk to coach and so we had a it was on a weekend and we had I think three or three days off which is a little unusual and we had a um a uh a trainer actually she was a she let it in stretching uh Lou her name was Louise bowling and she was a marathon runner and we talked to Casey he says you guys can run but I don’t want anybody’s pulling a hamstring and I want Louise to Pace you guys and so you guys were going to run with Louise at her pace and he talked to Louise and told us and told her you know don’t let these guys go crazy or whatever so we show up it’s a beautiful Saturday morning and we show up and there’s probably 2 000 2500 people in the race and so we start off and we’re running and we’re just staying right with Louise and all these guys are running by us they’re going hey there’s Larry Bird there’s Scott Webb I’m Pastor Larry Bird and this goes on for about five miles until we come in The Last Mile and Larry all of a sudden he comes and he goes nobody’s passing me anymore and so we took off we never saw Louise and I’m sure we ran that last mile under five minutes easy and Larry was sprinting the whole way I fell in behind him and I didn’t try and pass him not that I could have but we it was pretty memorable like because I remember I was in pretty good shape for running and Larry was in okay shape but he had a heart of a champion yeah he just he took off and nobody passes and nobody pulled the hamstring we were fine that’s pretty amazing so tell us how you became a Platte County resident and why you’ve decided to stay there all these years well when I when um I’ve been here two years in Kansas City I had lived uh oh out in Whispering Oaks Apartments out north and then I moved to a little Bungalow down by the plaza my second year and my wife and I had met in college and we tried to do a long distance relationship for a couple years she was in California and she was in uh uh that was prior to Face Time as well that’s right and cell phones and um so she was an ultrasound technician from ultrasound company and they were just coming out with ultrasound so anyway um that summer after saying here we decided to get married and so we did we eloped and got married to kind of simplify things and we came back to Kansas City lived another year down at the plaza and being from California she really missed the water and she said she’d like to see if there’s a place around here um it might be a you know she knew there was a lot of lakes and she wanted to research lakes and see if we could maybe find a house and so she I was playing I was in the fall I think and she went around at the end of that year she decided she uh she really liked Weatherby Lake and so we looked around and found a house there and we’ve been there ever since yeah it’s pretty cool that you’ve stayed there and I remember when I first moved a couple years after I moved there they had one of the news stations came out and they they acted like Weatherby was like another country they were like they said so what are you doing living out here and I was like I don’t know it’s close to the airport and you know we love it we’re still there we got a lot of friends there uh it’s a great place to live when you played him so you just would get an apartment in Boston then we had a house there but in a house in Cleveland but we we um we’d always come back here in in the summertime into our house here and then go back you know during the season and see you you signed with Seattle at the very end of your career I did well I got traded to Seattle and I uh I was trying out with them and I was nursing the Securities tendon injury and they ended up waving me and I got picked up by the I did a tryout with the Clippers and then the tryout I strained my achilles tendon again I was about at 80 85 at best and I that’s why I decided to remember like look pretty good at that point yeah it started a real estate business here with a partner while I was playing and I knew I was going to retire back and maybe be more involved in that which I still do cool yeah tell us more about what you’re doing now as far as real estate we just uh We’ve owned and managed property we started buying property back in the late 70s pretty much haven’t sold much we just don’t even manage it and rent rent property out all the way from we have apartments and uh town homes and a few houses yeah in the Kansas City area very cool hey you guys you’re watching Landmark live it’s a production of your favorite newspaper in fact it’s America’s favorite newspaper The Landmark newspaper and it’s Scott webman’s favorite newspaper at least right that’s right yeah we’ve got to get you a subscription in fact we’ll make a complimentary one Scott hey do you know anybody that lives down at Weatherby Lake by the name of Tom Hankey I sure do yeah well he’s a landmark subscriber so we got to get Scott webman on the subscription list yeah I know exactly where Tom yeah well Tommy he used to play some ball didn’t he baseball or not you know he might have okay I think he might have yeah yeah I think that’s right yeah we kind of looked him up yeah he had a pretty good pretty fancy place where do you play I don’t know I honestly mentioned as a stats Hall of Fame type stats yeah you know what he’s never told me about it be asking about that yeah say what are we talking about the same time I will find out okay we’ll find out all right well Tom Hankey Landmark subscriber in Weatherby Lake and soon to be Scott wedman Landmark subscriber so hey we got to get to one of our favorite topics Scott I don’t know are you have you ever bet on Sports because we kind of do and we like to talk about it you know I never I usually don’t do that oh okay well yeah I always thought I want to get into coaching and that’s not a good combination although I’m amazed at how easy it is to bet now well yeah we just go over there well I go over to Kansas guy I don’t know why he he likes to go up to Iowa but I don’t know what that’s all about but I prefer I think he hates Kansas so much that’s right he won’t he won’t drive into Kansas to bet but I I will remember today so I’m not gonna say much more about it yeah so I go over to Hollywood Casino because it’s legal now in the state of Kansas and do something well can’t you I thought you could bet online well you have to be in the state though you have to drive across the state lines to do it okay yeah yeah they’ll track your phone so guy he drives up to Iowa where it’s legal oh okay it’s just because he hates Kansas it’s a strange thing but anyway so we and we have this Landmark pickum contest where it’s we pick every game on the NFL slate and we need to get you started in there and you can be like in the Celebrity Status we can start a special league for celebrities for free well yeah the whole thing’s for free not legal to do that in Missouri yet that’s one thing that’s a topic on next week’s show by the way we’re gonna have a state senator on uh Tony Luke comeyer who’s guys like Tony’s biggest fan and yet Tony has not gotten legalized sports betting for us yet so guys gonna kind of rip him a little bit on next week’s show yeah so every question when you tune in next week every question is going to be about sports betting gambling with the state senator no more farm credits no no more no more police dogs we’re doing gambling only questions tune in for that show because that’ll be a winner but anyway so we need to would you join our pick ’em contest you know oh sure it’s not gambling because you’re just making predictions okay sure I’m real bad and he’s marginally bad so far what we’re saying is you might have you got a chance to do pretty good it sounds like I could do that I could handle that you are a Chiefs fan though we talked about that pre-pre-show so tell us a little bit uh do you watch every NFL or every Chiefs game or if I don’t I’d catch the highlights but yeah I enjoy watching I’m they’re they’re uh I think coach Reed’s done a great job and that combination of him and my homes and Kelsey and you know they see they can lose a player or two and they still keep going they’re they’re very impressive yeah they are hey so if there’s there are young kids out there watching and they want to they want to be a basketball player like Scott wedman give us some tips for I don’t know say young kids what what should they be working on oh you know the probably the first tip I would give is to the parents I think a lot a lot of parents want their kids to be great athletes and I think the most important thing with the young player is you got to let them find their passion you know it’s got to be it’s got to be their motivation uh certainly parents gonna can support them every way they can but um one you know it doesn’t matter if it’s basketball or football or baseball or art or whatever it is it’s got to be their passion and uh you know back when we were kids we didn’t have a lot of other options it didn’t seem like there’s so many options uh young young people have these days that I think you uh um they you kind of certainly have to try and support them but it’s got to be their passion and if it’s their passion they’re going to find a way to get better whether it’s playing Au or working in a on it at some point in basketball you have to become a gym rat you have to be in the gym just in working on your own and uh and and work on improving I love basketball in the sense that you can you can go into a gym and by yourself and you get immediate feedback on how you do it if you make 23 out of 25 free dogs [Laughter] highlights of my athletic life and nobody’s thought my wife and daughter yeah so that it’s a fun game it’s a great game yeah and uh what would you play uh what you did track and field probably you like your brother a little bit more baseball yeah I did up until well high school after my I think after my sophomore year I just played basketball up and then I was playing all sports what did you what position in baseball I like to pitch okay yeah I did like the best I played The Outfield and pitch and which one of your parents was a really good athlete one of them both of them well my dad he said he would have been a lot better athlete but growing up in rural Kansas he didn’t he was working too much to really have time for sports yeah and I’m sure he would have been I think he was a good football player he used to tell me he used to run with his high knees and so nobody could tackle him nice did he he grew up in the Harper area he did yes yeah both my mom and dad were from that area oh very cool what are some of the other little towns around Harper because I I’m familiar with a lot of those little well we’re Southwest of Wichita so it’s uh danville’s even smaller town uh Harper and Anthony Medicine Lodge is on kingman’s not too far yeah it’s a little Harper’s a town of about 1500 people yeah did you ever hear of Maxville or spearville or uh gosh what is that I know you’ve heard a Great Bend but sure those those maxville’s not too far from Great Bend which is where my dad grew up there yeah played High School football yeah that was uh the area I traveled to a lot as a kid but never went to Harper by the way but had you heard of it no not until I talked to you well in Wellington you’ve heard of Wellington yeah yeah so where Wellington is on 160 and Harper’s just oh probably 30 miles to the west of Wellington yeah yeah very cool yes it’s uh we got a lot of family there and relatives so it’s always nice to go back yeah very cool okay spec man wrap us up you got any other questions that just has been a true pleasure really well thank you guys thanks for having me here really yeah it’s just a interesting and I appreciate it the the tallest guest we’ve ever had the uh the only world champion we’ve ever had the only guy that’s ever worn purple shoes on the show Scott Whitman so a lot of Firsts here tonight and we’re we’re happy you tuned in we appreciate we hope you enjoyed the show we’ll have uh Scott back on again in the future because this was fun thanks for coming on my pleasure it was a good time thanks a lot appreciate it guys thanks hey again a week from tonight which will be what guy Thursday October 20. it’s gambling night it’s gambling night with with State creditors Tony lukemeyer but we’re going to talk sports gambling so Tony be ready until then we’ll see you thanks for tuning in.
